Category Archives: House stuff

Since Rowan figured out how to move the gate we had placed across the bottom of the stairs in the foyer, we have been trying to figure out the best way to gate off this opening. We already owned several gates, but it didn’t seem as though any of them would work. The problem: at the bottom of the stairs we had issues on both sides. On one side, a curved wall. On the other side, a metal banister. We kicked around just about every idea you can think of, including gating off the whole foyer, drilling into the metal and gating off the kitchen and family room from the rest of the house, and having that be Rowan’s domain. None of those seemed acceptable.

To make is more complicated, I also wanted to be sure I could open it with one hand while carrying a sleeping baby, and I wanted to boys to be able to have open access to the upstairs. Our friends Jen and David Bowden lent us a gate that we thought might work while we were in our “gating off the foyer” school of thought. It didn’t work for that, but it did end up being our solution. Thanks Jen and David!!!

We ended up constructing a wood extenstion to the banister that we attached to the banister with T plates. This provided the “wall” we needed on the banister side. With this on one side, we were able to work with the curved wall on the other side and install the tension-mounted gate. Chris and Drew built the “wall” (Drew even got to drill one of the holes), I painted it and now we should be good to go. And for the bonus points, I can open it with one hand while carrying Rowan and the boys can both easily open it.